NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
FOR WRITTEN REPLY
QUESTION NO. 24
DATE OF PUBLICATION IN INTERNAL QUESTION PAPER: 10 February 2011
(INTERNAL QUESTION PAPER NO. 1)
Mr M Waters (DA) to ask the Minister of Health:
(1) Whether his department intends revisiting its policy of not accepting
health professionals from developing countries; if not, (a) why not
and (b) how does he justify that many of these health professionals
end up working abroad; if so, when will this be done;
(2) whether any applications by health professionals from developing
countries were received during the past three years; if so, (a) how
many for each category of health professional, (b) from which
countries were the applications received, (c) in which year did they
apply and (d) how many were successful?
NW33E
REPLY:
1) No.
a) There is no need to review the policy at this stage as it caters
sufficiently for the recruitment of foreign health professionals
from both developed and developing countries under certain
conditions as outlined in the policy. The policy is aimed at
discouraging direct recruitment by South Africa from countries
where health services are compromised due to a lack of health
professionals, except where government-to-government agreements
exist to facilitate such recruitment. It is also in line with
the World Health Organisation (WHO) Global Code of Practice on
the International Recruitment of Health Personnel of which South
Africa is a signatory.
b) South Africa, as a member of the Southern African Development
Community (SADC) and the African Union (AU), is concerned about
the exodus of trained health professionals to countries abroad.
It is also experiencing the consequences of the emigration of
skills to other countries, especially to developed countries. It
would therefore not be prudent for South Africa to provide
employment opportunities to health professionals from other
countries who have similar challenges.
2) (a) Yes.
The following table reflects the information in this regard:
Table 1
| |Number of applications |
|Profession | |
| |2008 |2009 |2010 |Total |
|Anatomical Pathologists | | |1 |1 |
|Audiologists |1 |1 | |2 |
|Basic Ambulance Assistants | |4 |11 |15 |
|Biological Scientists |1 | | |1 |
|Biomedical Technicians |2 |5 |8 |15 |
|Clinical Anatomists | | |1 |1 |
|Clinical Psychologists |2 |4 |6 |12 |
|Counsellors | | |1 |1 |
|Dental Therapists | | |2 |2 |
|Dentists |3 |12 |14 |29 |
|Embryologists | |1 | |1 |
|Emergency Cares | |1 | |1 |
|Environmental Health Officers | |1 |2 |3 |
|Epidemiologists | |1 | |1 |
|Industrial Psychologist | | |1 |1 |
|Laboratory Technicians | |1 | |1 |
|Medical Doctors |415 |694 |921 |2 030 |
|Medical Technologists |5 |11 |15 |31 |
|Microbiologists | | |2 |2 |
|Nurses |364 |561 |563 |1 488 |
|Occupational Therapists |1 |2 |4 |7 |
|Oncologists | |1 | |1 |
|Ophthalmologists | |1 | |1 |
|Optometrists | |1 | |1 |
|Paramedics | |1 |2 |3 |
|Pharmacists |53 |106 |119 |278 |
|Pharmacy Assistants | | |1 |1 |
|Physiotherapists |4 |15 |20 |39 |
|Psychologists | |3 |4 |7 |
|Radiographers |5 |9 |14 |28 |
|Radiologists |1 | | |1 |
|Speech and Language Therapists | |1 |1 |2 |
|X-ray Technicians | |1 | |1 |
|Total |857 |1 438 |1 717 |4 012 |
(b) Angoloa, Argentina, Bahamas, Bangladesh, Bosnia and Herzegovian,
Botswana, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Chile, China,
Colombia, Cuba, Dominicana, Democratic Republic of Congo,
Ecuador, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-
Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Ivory
Coast, Jordan, Kenya, Korea, Kuwait, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya,
Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius,
Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan,
Palestina, Phillipines, Rwanda, Senegal, Seychelles, Singapore,
Somalia, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Swaziland, Syria, Tanzania,
Trinidad, Turkey, Uganda, Venezuela, Zambia, Zimbabwe
c) 2008, 2009 and 2010.
d) - 2008: 475
- 2009: 1Â 050 and
- 2010: 1 251
END.